CAMBRIDGE—A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL 107 
and the way in which he carried them out — you will 
understand what pleasure these things have given 
me. Mr. Peirce writes to me, “It is elegant in style, 
in the most refined good taste, and in all ways worthy 
of science, our country and our age. But its highest 
attraction is that it contains such a perfect portrait 
of our beloved and great-hearted Agassiz. I did not 
know that you were such an artist.” Was n’t it lovely 
that this should come to me the very first thing? It 
was perfectly spontaneous. I had never talked to the 
Peirces of the plan of the book, or of my aims in it, 
and I felt that the picture must be there or he would 
not have found it. Longfellow’s note is longer, but I 
extract for you part: ‘‘The idea of mingling the two 
Diaries is most felicitous. It is like the intermingling 
of masculine and feminine rhymes in a French poem. 
In fact the whole expedition is highly poetical and 
honorable to all concerned. There is nothing like it 
since Hipparchus sent his fifty oared galley to bring 
Anacreon to Athens.” 
Holmes writes to us together. “United in your 
book,” he says, “you shall not be divided in my note.” 
He writes after having read the whole and says, “It 
is a new world to most of us, to me certainly, and I am 
sure we all feel that it is a rare privilege to wander 
through it, under the guidance of such explorers. So 
exquisitely are your labors blended that as with the 
mermaiden of ancient poets, it is hard to say where 
the woman leaves off and the fish begins. The deli- 
cate observation of nature from the picturesque side 
relieves the grave scientific observations and discus- 
